Cat Juhas
Found. Writing – Dr. Sherry
September 2013
Food Consumption Among University Students
Problem
Leaving your family for the first time can be extremely difficult; leaving the comforts and routines of your home can be even more difficult. For most of us we never imagined being on our own so quickly. Some, being more dependent on family than others, have grown accustomed to home-cooked meals, fast food places being right around the corner, or eating out at restaurants every now and again. Moving to college can be a frightening transition; from moving into a new room that you have to share with others to getting familiarized to the college food, your first week can be pretty nerve wracking. You’re probably thinking to yourself “why would I need to get used to the college food?” To answer your question, college food is much different than the food you are used to from home. At home you can eat whenever and wherever you choose, compared to at college where you can eat wherever but during the time limits imposed by either the university or your own personal schedule that certainly no longer includes as much free time as in the past. Though the University claims to have a wide variety of foods, there is not much of a variety of nutritional foods readily available. Students, for the most part, must develop proper nutritional habits and it is incumbent upon the University to insure all of their students (particularly those staying on campus) make intelligent food choices. Throughout this paper I will be going in depth of how college food can be a problem if not fixed. Then, I will explain how I found my data and what I did. Finally, I will conclude my paper by drawing all of my research together.

Background
Students are more vulnerable now, transferring from adolescence to adulthood, to dietary problems for the mere fact of the payments of tuition fees and the economic hardships. (Manwa, 2013) Now-a-days college tuitions go up and up, but the food stays the same. Colleges even add more places and vending machines to snack at throughout the years. Dietary patterns are important as they reflect the types of foods available as well as the nutrient content taken by individuals or groups of people. (Manwa, 2013) Within Universities you will come across many individuals all different shapes and sizes of all different ethnicities and cultures. My question is, do they all take care of themselves and keep themselves in shape? 61% of Cardiovascular deaths are related to diet and physical activity. (Claudiu & Mihaela, 2013) I believe a Healthy body is able to maintain a healthy mind if you have the motivation to push yourself for greatness. Throughout college it is very easy to fall into the eight risk factors – alcohol use, smoking, high blood cholestoral, high blood glucose, low fruit and vegetable intakes, and physical inactivity. (Claudiu &Mihaela, 2013) Living away from home makes falling into all of that more easier considering you don’t have anybody to specifically be down your back about different things.

Method
To go about my questions above, I used ethnographic research approaches similar to what we have gone over in class. To answer my questions I surveyed not one similar type of person, but multiple persons around campus to see how much health is important to them. I asked questions like “do you go to the gym often,” “how do you eat healthy on campus,” “do health risks run in your family,” and “is it more hard to want to stay in shape living away from home apposed to living at home?” I then compared my findings with national statistics in world wide universities.

Findings


Conclusion



Works Cited

Manwa, L. (2013). University students' dietary patterns: A case of a university in zimbabwe. Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research & Policy Studies, 4(1), 191-197.
*(Manwa, 2013)
D., S., & C.R., H. (2009). The habitual meal and snacking patterns of university students in two countries and their use of vending machines. Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, 23, 102-107.
*(D. & C.R., 2009)
Claudiu, A., & Mihaela, O. (2013). Fruit, vegetables, and fast food consumption among university students. Timisoara Physical Education and Rehabilitation Journal, 5(10), 60.
*(Claudiu & Mihaela, 2013)